As yatra enters Saurashtra, CM shifts focus to state Cong

After a series of attacks on central Congress leaders, including AICC president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday shifted focus to the Gujarat Congress.

As the Saurashtra leg of of his Swami Vivekanand Yuva Vikas Yatra started from Limbdi in Surendranagar district, Modi hit out at the Congress and his 30-minute speech largely sounded like his answer to the party's recent advertisements calling for changing "disha" (direction) and "dasha" (condition) of Gujarat.

He said Congress' "disha is to divide and rule" and his disha is "Savno saath, savno vikas (everybody's participation, everybody's development)". "Congress gave dasha of danki (handpump). I gave flowing water in canals," Modi added.

Referring to the forms distributed by the Congress to provide affordable houses to women if it came to power, Modi said, "Congress distributed piece of papers on rakshabandhan. I did not give hollow promises, but brought Narmada waters to Surendranagar."

Calling the voters of the state "visionary who saved the state from the clutches of panja (Congress' party symbol)", he said, "People will not hand over the state to panja to let it destroy (Gujarat)."

Keeping the newly formed textile policy in mind, Modi announced to set up textile parks in the district, which is the biggest producer of cotton in Gujarat.

He also announced to bring additional five lakh acres of agriculture land under irrigation cover by providing Narmada water through Botad and Dhangadhra branches, covering places like Limbdi, Chuda, Wadhwan, Dhangadhra, Hadvad, Dasada and Lakhtar, which are drought-prone.

Surendranagar district is one of the weakest belts of the BJP in Saurashtra as three of the total six assembly seats here are in the Congress' kitty.

Later in the day, at Amreli — which is the hub of BJP rebel activities — Modi said that Congress' "disha" reduced quota of LPG cylinders while he provided gas through pipeline.

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